A blog that focuses on our unique program to teach children to gentle wild horses and start colts using natural horsemanship. This blog discusses our efforts to prevent the extinction of the Corolla Spanish Mustang. We are the home of Tradewind, a formerly wild Corolla Spanish mustang stallion who was named the 2011 National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year by the Horse of the Americas Registry. We are an American Indian Horse Registry Hall of Fame Farm.

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Tuesday, November 25, 2014

This Post Is Four Years Old And As Accurate Today As it Was Then

Daddy, What Did You Do In The Revolution?

Pardon
me while I take a moment to wrestle with the most important question
facing the future of horsemanship in America--"How can we best hasten
the implosion of the established horse world and replace it with system
of enlightened horsemanship based on natural horsemanship, natural horse
care, and and natural hoof care?"

The established horse world is
fueled by greed and revolves around competitions which lead owners to
view horses as fungible goods. The constant need to buy a "better" horse
(one that gets a blue colored ribbon instead of a red colored
ribbon)has given rise to an industry that supports over production and
most sickeningly of all, horse slaughter.

Does not a registry which
supports horse slaughter as being a humane solution to the problem of
"unwanted horses" indict itself? Just as some rights are self evident,
are not some wrongs self evident?

In the long term the current
state of the horse market may be in the best interest of horses and real
horsemanship because it will help to drive those most motivated by
greed into other ventures. Lawd, I sure will miss those people. With
them gone who will I have to tell me how wrong I am?

Herein for
me lies the dilemma. There is no hope of preserving the Corollas unless
more people understand and are given reason to care about their plight.
The same is true of every other strain of Colonial Spanish Horse. How
can that most effectively be done? I do not believe that involving
ourselves in competitions that are the underpinning of the established
horse world is the best way to do so.

I believe that getting our
horses out in front of the non-horse owning world is vitally important.
We must attract new owners that do not bring with them the crippling
baggage of being an "experienced" member of the established horse world.

I
am a mediator, a conciliator, and a compromiser by nature. I view
conflict nearly always as something to avoid. However, in this case
conflict is necessary. I cannot pretend that there is any validity what
so ever in the preachings of the established horse world and the
artificial agribusiness that has grown up to support. That is the case
whether we speak of bits, nutrition, shoeing, or proper conformation.
For the horse's sake we must refrain from doing anything for the simple
reason that that is how the experts say that it should be done.

I
do not want to do anything that remotely suggests that I am seeking the
approval of these people. I do not want my horses to earn the respect
of such people, but I would love for those experts to earn the respect
of my horses.

The only effective alternative that I see for
myself is to seek to be known by my fruits, to teach by doing. People
start to notice.

"Steve's horses do not wear shoes but they are
never lame. Steve's horses live outside 24/7 but they do not get
respiratory problems. Steve's horses were wild or at least their parents
were and they are gentler and friendlier than any horses around.
Steve's horses are ponies but they often carry riders weighing over 200
lbs, sometimes for fifty miles in a day. Steve's horses are trained by
his little riders but they are safer and more reliable than many horses
trained by professionals. Steve's horses only colic in the rarest of
circumstances. Maybe I should take a look at how his horses live if
these are the results that he gets."

So that is where I draw the
line. Parades, such as the one pictured in the shot above, we
participate in. Horse shows, except for those of the type that the
American Indian Horse Association holds, we do not participate in.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

I may or may not have fostered some hate and discontent along these lines..It may have been the tone of voice when I said "nice ribbon." Could not see the horse..he was in a stall somewhere. I cannot understand that world..I have made brief forays there..usually having something to do with a job..The logic that leads one to shave off a horse's natural winter coat and cover him in blankets to keep him warm..all because of someone's perception that fuzzy horses are not attractive...well...neither are sick, lame, or dead ones. I like fuzzy horses..I don't worry so much about them galling at the girth path as we blast down the trail together...I have never had anybody comment on Snow on Her other than to note how beautiful she is..fuzzy or not. Although it may be simple wisdom on the part of the public at large..I might become uncivilized at an unfavorable opinion of her..have become a bit uncivilized at ufavorable opinions about these fantastic little mestenos...but I digress. I read an article last night about the animal shelter in Miami-Dade Florida..about how their shelter gets over full around the Holidays because people surrender their pets so as to not have them interfere with their travel plans. Really? Humanity, you are failing yourself. It is not ok to get rid of an animal simply because it has become inconvenient..that animal comes with an obligation. I wonder what a turn of those tables would look like...if the animal could get rid of the bad owner..-Lloyd

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About Me

In my coat and tie life I am a prosecutor in Smithfield, Virgina. In my boots and blue jeans life am Executive Director of the Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc, an non profit organizations which administers Mill Swamp Indian Horses. We raise mustangs, including the rare and endangered Corolla Spanish Mustangs. We teach natural horsemanship to students as young as five years old. I have written several articles on natural horsemanship and recently published my first book, "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Learning From Wild Horses and Small Children. I was a recipient of the Keeper of the Flame Award from the American Indian horse Association for our efforts to preserve the Corolla Spanish mustangs and in 2009 we were recognized by the Horse of the Americas Registry with the Carol Stone Ambassador Award. In 2011 we received the Currituck Star Award for our Corolla preservation efforts.
My wife, Beth Edwards and I have three daughters and five grandchildren. See our web site, www.msindianhorses.com

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